Internet Vulnerability &
Criminal Activity
5.2 – 10/10/2011
Child Exploitation Pedophilia & Child Pornography
Child Exploitation
“Possession, manufacture and
distribution of child pornography; online
enticement of children for sexual acts;
child prostitution; child sex tourism and;
child sexual molestation. ”
Methods of Child Exploitation
 Enticement
 “Inviting, persuading, or attempting to persuade a child to enter any
vehicle, building, room, or secluded place with intent to commit an
unlawful sexual act upon or with the person of said child”
 Pornography
 “Depictions of minors in sexual acts or provocative poses”
 Molestation
 “Any sexual behavior or activity that is abusive or
nonconsensual toward a child – or sexual behavior that is
specifically prohibited by state/federal law”
Methods of Child Exploitation
 Prostitution
 “The use of a child by others for sexual activities in return for
remuneration or any other form of consideration”
 Sex Tourism
 “Traveling to a foreign country with the intent to engage in
sexual activity with a child”
Victims of Child Exploitation
Online
Minor
“Anyone under the age of 18 no
matter what the age of consent in
a state maybe”
Characteristics of Victims
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Dysfunctional families
Older rather than younger
Confusion over sexual orientation
Not always “innocent”
May misrepresent themselves
May be looking for / collecting pornography
Do not understand what they are getting into
Consent is not an issue
Computer/Internet Use by Sex
Offenders
 Computer only a tool
 Online offenders most similar to acquaintance
molesters
 Offender slang
 “Traders” - Traffic in child porn
 “Travelers” - Solicit sex with children
 Problem area - adolescents
 Producing/trading child porn (sexting)
 Soliciting sex with other adolescents
 Not sexually deviant
Illegal Computer/Internet Activities
 Possessing / producing child
pornography
 Uploading / downloading child
pornography
 Soliciting sex with children
 Offering a child for sexual purposes
Legal Sexual Activities
 Validating deviant sexual behavior and
interests
 Reinforcing deviant arousal patterns
 Storing and sharing sexual fantasies
 Lying about one’s age and identity
Legal Sexual Activities cont.
 Collecting adult pornography that is not
obscene
 Disseminating “indecent” material,
talking dirty, “cyber-sex”, and providing
sex instructions
 Injecting oneself into the “problem” of
computer exploitation of children to
rationalize interests
Categories of Sexual Offenders
 Situational Offenders
 Preferential Offenders
 Miscellaneous Offenders
Situational Offenders
 “Normal” adolescent / adult
 Curious
 Impulsive
 Morally indiscriminate
 Power / anger motivated
 Previous violent offenses
 Profiteers
 Easy money
Miscellaneous “Offenders”
 Media Reporters
 Engage in illegal behavior for news story
 Pranksters
 “cyber-smearing”
 Older “Boyfriends”
 Late teens / early 20’s
 Overzealous citizens
 Want to help law enforcement
 Be aware of true motivation
Preferential Offenders
 Pedophile
 Prefers sex with children
 Diverse
 Wide variety of deviant interests
 Sexually indiscriminate
 Latent
 Recently begun to act on illegal urges
Understanding Sexual
Offender Behavior
Paraphilia
Sexual deviations or perversions
Paraphilia Defined
 Psychosexual disorder
 Recurrent, intense sexual arousing
fantasies, urges, or behaviors that
involve:
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Nonhuman objects
Suffering or humiliation
Children, other non-consenting persons
Occurs over a period of six months
Types of Paraphilia
 Exhibitionism - exposure
 Fetishism - objects
 Pedophilia - children
 Sexual masochism - self-pain
 Sexual sadism - partner-pain
 Voyeurism - watching
Pedophilia Characteristics
(Psychological)
 Sexual in nature
 Highly addictive
 Compulsive & repetitive
 Very difficult to treat
 Unstopped by self-control/self-discipline
 Only a crime if urge is acted on
 Does not include adolescent consensual
relationships
Pedophiles use of the Internet
 Trafficking in child pornography
 Locating children to molest
 Engaging in inappropriate
communications with children
 Communicating with other pedophiles
Internet Technologies used by Sex
Offenders
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Adult Pornography
Social Networking Sites
Chat Rooms
Online Gaming Sites
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
Web Cams
Some Pedophile Groups Some on the Web
 North American Man - Boy Love
Association - NAMBLA
 The Rene Guyon Society
 Childhood Sensuality Circle - CSC
 Pedophiliacs Anonymous - PAN
 Pedophile Information Exchange - PIE
 Pedophile Action for Liberation - PAL
 Pedophile Alliance League - P.A.L.
 The Lewis Carroll Collectors Guild
 Howard Nichols Society
Evidence
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Screen name
Screen profile
Accuracy of profile
Length of time active
Amount of time spent online
Number of transmissions
Number of files
Number of file originated
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Number of files forwarded
Number of files received
Number of recipients
Site of communication
Theme of messages and
chat
 Theme of pornography
Child Pornography
“Depictions of minors in sexual
acts or provocative poses”
How the Internet Changed Child
Porn
 Prior to the Internet, Child porn local, very
small distribution
 Mid 1980’s - Child porn almost wiped out
 Internet & technology allows
 Cheap, easy creation of child porn
 Anonymous distribution
 Available through all Net channels (IRC, P2P, web
pages, e-mail)
The Role of the Internet in
Promoting Child Pornography
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Permits vast quantities from around the world
Instantly available in any time or place
Can be accessed anonymously & privately
Facilitates direct communication and file sharing
between users
Relatively inexpensive
Images do not deteriorate & are easy to store
Variety of formats; potential for real-time &
interactive experiences
Can be used to create composite or virtual images
Three Components of the
Problem
 Production
 Distribution
 Downloading
Production
 Premium placed on new material –
much material decades old
 Professionally produced materials from
third world countries
 Most common, amateurs recording their
own sexual exploits
 Clandestine photography of children in
public places
Distribution
 Uploading & dissemination of
pornographic images
 May involve sophisticated pedophile rings
& organized crime groups
 Many times carried out by amateurs
 Efforts to stop distribution focusing on
ISP’s and police stings has changed the
way in which child porn is distributed
 Increasingly, sophisticated security
measures are being used
Methods of Distribution
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Web sites
Web cam
E-mail
E-groups
 Newsgroups
 Bulletin Board
Systems
 Chat Rooms
 Peer-to-peer
Downloading
 Accessing child porn via the Internet
 Images do not need to be saved
 In most cases, users must be actively
seeking child porn
 Increasingly, good computer skills &
inside knowledge required
 Most downloading done via newsgroups
& chat rooms
Offender Typology
 Browsers
 Inadvertently find child porn, but knowingly keep the images
 No networking
 No security strategies
 Private fantasizers
 Create digital images for personal use
 No networking
 No security strategies
 Trawlers
 Seek child porn through open sources
 Minimal networking
 Few security strategies
Offender Typology
 Non-secure collectors
 Seek child porn in non-secure chat rooms & other open levels
 High levels of networking
 No security strategies
 Secure collectors
 Use closed newsgroups or secret pedophile rings
 High level of networking
 Sophisticated security measures
 Groomers
 Develop online relationships with children, use child porn to
“groom” victim
 May or may not be involved with networking
 Little security strategies
Offender Typology
 Physical abusers
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Child porn part of pedophilic interest
May create their own child porn, evidence of their behavior
May or may not network
Security depends on victim’s silence
 Producers
 Record abuse for purpose of distributing to others
 Networking depends on if producer is also distributor
 Security depends on victim’s silence
 Distributors
 Disseminates child porn images
 May have purely financial interests
 Networking and security depends upon level of operation
How do Pedophiles use Child
Pornography
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Source of pride
Sexual gratification
Feed/create sexual fantasies
Training/grooming potential victims
Lower potential victim’s inhibitions
Blackmail victim into silence
Profit
Barter with other pedophiles
Dangers Associated with Child
Porn
 Single most distinct characteristic of child
molester
 Used by molester to ‘normalize’ behavior
 Long term use leads to desensitization
 Used by terrorist groups to exchange
information http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crim
e/article4959002.ece
Law Enforcement Challenges
 Structure of the Internet
 Decentralized, P2P
 One site shut down, another will instantly
take it’s place
 Uncertainties of jurisdiction
 Requires cooperation among agencies
 No clue to where images originate
Law Enforcement Challenges
 Lack of regulation
 Community protection vs. Freedom of Speech
 Ambiguity regarding liability, ISP responsibility
 Differences in legislation
 Differences between countries
 Countries may vary in commitment
 Cultural differences
 Expertise of offenders
 Long time offenders experts in security measures
 Many sting operations catch the inexperienced,
low-level offender
Sources
 Child Molesters: A Behavioral Analysis http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/publ
ications/NC70.pdf
 Child Pornography on the Internet http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/files/ric/Publi
cations/e04062000.pdf